Sundance deals: Big spenders

This year’s Sundance Film Festival (Jan 17-27) saw a flurry of pick-ups — with buyers paying a lot of money for the right films. Jeremy Kay reports

Scroll down for a round-up of Sundance deals

When Fox Searchlight paid what is believed to be $9.8m for The Way, Way Back [pictured] in the small hours of Tuesday, January 22, the second biggest acquisition in Sundance history sealed the 2013 festival’s reputation as one where people took out their wallets.

The Monday surge after a typically slow opening weekend is a phenomenon observers recall from last year’s Park City jamboree. What differed from 2012 is that buyers paid a lot of money.

Morgan Neville’s Twenty Feet From Stardom earned early plaudits and generated the first on-site buy the day after the opening night world premiere. RADiUS-TWC stumped up low seven figures for North American rights in a deal with busy Submarine Entertainment (see deals, below).

That is a lot of money for a documentary, but RADiUS-TWC co-heads Tom Quinn and Jason Janego know a thing or two about hybrid distribution patterns that combine the traditional clout of a theatrical release with more nimble digital and VoD strategies. Plus they have the ear of a marketing genius.

“We are in the business of coming up with the right way to distribute a film,” says Quinn. “And working with Harvey [Weinstein] is a game changer.”

By Saturday, January 20, the stakes had been raised and there were murmurs Friday’s world premiere of Don Jon’s Addiction would result in a headline-grabbing piece of business. Before that emerged, newcomer A24 used the full force of its Guggenheim Fund backing to pledge $1.5m for the highly regarded high-school tale The Spectacular Now. The Exchange handles international sales.

Don Jon’s Addiction sold on Monday, January 21. Screen International was the first to report that a deal for Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s feature directorial debut was headed into $4m-$5m territory and sure enough Relativity Media forked out a $4m minimum guarantee and committed to a $25m p&a spend for a summer US release.

WME and CAA represented sales rights on behalf of the film’s financier and international sales agent Nicolas Chartier of Voltage Pictures, one of the shrewdest operators in the business who got the number he wanted. Now the pressure is on Relativity to deliver the film to the right crowd in the right way.

Monday was an avalanche. RADiUS-TWC’s corporate parent The Weinstein Company paid $2m-$3m for North American and English-speaking rights to the acclaimed Fruitvale, which won the US dramatic jury and audience prizes. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions spent $4m-$5m on world rights to the breezy Austenland in a deal that will see Sony Pictures Classics handle for North America.

RADiUS-TWC returned to the fray with the second of five deals at time of writing on January 28, pledging around $3m for US rights to Lovelace starring Amanda Seyfried.

The Way, Way Back transaction closed on Tuesday, January 22, after a marathon night-time negotiation. Fox Searchlight’s advance for North America and select international territories makes it second in size only to the $10.5m minimum guarantee it shelled out for Little Miss Sunshine back in 2006.

Many more deals ensued in the coming days. WME’s global finance and distribution group head Graham Taylor, who represented The Way, Way Back, Don Jon’s Addiction and Fruitvale and thus had a hand in the biggest sales of Sundance, dismissed speculation from certain quarters that there was an air of desperation among some buyers.

“They are pragmatic enough to know they can leave Sundance with nothing and maybe buy a festival movie several days or weeks later,” says Taylor. He attributes high asking prices to the intrinsic value of the films. “I sold Machete Kills [outside of a festival] to Open Road last October for $5m and Snowpiercer to the Weinsteins at AFM for $7.5m. When things make sense, that’s the way it goes.”

“Working until 5am is always desperate,” says Quinn with a chuckle. “We have been up every night but it’s been worth it. We have bought four movies that are extraordinary in their own way. Jason [Janego] and I feel very fortunate.”

Quinn and Janego did not target a particular number of titles and were able to move quickly and aggressively when the situation demanded it. It is believed they prevailed over rival bidder Sony in the hunt for Twenty Feet From Stardom and the documentary Inequality For All, and while Quinn declines to comment on this, it illustrates the changing landscape.

“Sometimes we are absolutely in pole position financially [in a bidding war] and sometimes our ability to release a film in the right way is the most attractive [to producers],” he says. “We are truly a multi-platform distributor in that we sculpt and tailor and plan to meet a film’s needs. It is to the credit of the film community that they understand there are multiple ways to release a film.”

The demand for titles from an increasingly populated acquisitions field made for an unusual dynamic at Sundance 2013. “You have all of the sellers concentrated into a few agencies plus Cinetic,” says head of acquisitions Matt Brodlie of Exclusive Media’s new US distributor Exclusive Releasing, which bought US, UK and CIS rights to Two Mothers. “It is very concentrated and not spread out among 30 or 40 sales agencies as it is in Cannes. It makes it tough.”

Buyers reported, for example, that shortly after The Way, Way Back sold, CAA sales agents were encouraging buyers to return to theatres and watch the 9am Tuesday show of another film on its sales slate, The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman.

There was also a fair amount of on-site international trading. Elle Driver picked up international rights to Twenty Feet From Stardom from Submarine; IM Global and Canana Films’ joint venture Mundial acquired Who Is Dayani Cristal?; Content bolstered its EFM portfolio with Concussion; and QED International took sales rights to Toy’s House.

Most commented

Advertise with us

Screen International provides a range of effective advertising opportunities both in print and online. Our commercial team will work with you to build the most effective package for your marketing requirement.

Subscribe to Screen

Screen International is the essential multi-platform resource for the international film industry. A subscription now offers much greater value with full access to ScreenDaily.com, ScreenBase and Screen International magazine. Rely on us for expert news analysis, insight and data.

Screen International

Screen International is the leading film industry resource covering the international film markets. We provide a whole-industry perspective from some of the most knowledgeable writers and data analysts in the business. Across print and online mediums, Screen International delivers analysis, opinion and commentary on the issues, people and products shaping the worldwide film industry.